Writing a Personal Statement for a Graduate School Application

Overview of the Personal Statement

Most mathematics PhD programs will ask applicants to write a Personal Statement or Statement of Purpose as part of their application to the school. Often it can be ambiguous as to what precisely the program wants to see in these statements. I read several hundred of these every year, and based on that experience I have compiled a list of the most impactful statements in a personal statement.

In general, I prefer personal statements that are structured more along the lines of a cover letter for a job. I am most interested in reading about a student’s current interests in mathematics and why they believe my department’s program is a good fit, rather than a lengthy description of what first drew the applicant towards mathematics.

Keep in mind that the personal statement is one of the few parts of the application in which readers get a glimpse of your personality. The rest of the application is more “boilerplate”. For this reason I do recommend spending some effort to write a well organized, well written statement.

Of course, as you are reading this list keep in mind that it is my own set of preferences. Other reviewers may have different opinions.

Tips for the Personal Statement

Past Experiences to Highlight

Many of these experiences will already be listed on your CV/resume, but you can certainly write a more detailed explanation of them in your personal statement:

• Definitely do describe any previous research experiences or activities that you have participated in. This could be doing a reading or research project with a faculty member, or even a full fledged Research Experience for Undergraduates in the summer.

• Describe any previous positions as a teaching assistant or mathematics tutor. Even describing informal tutoring to your friends can be helpful. In most programs you will be asked to be a TA, tutor, or even instructor, and it is helpful to know that you have past experience with this.

• Describe any prior participation in activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Even listing any readings you have done about these topics, or DEI seminars you may have attended, is useful to know.

• If you faced any challenging personal life circumstances in recent years, especially any which may have negatively affected your transcripts, the personal statement can be a good place to address them.

Discussion of Research Interests

It is important to describe your research interests in the personal statement. Departments typically concentrate on only a subset of the many research areas within mathematics, and evaluators want to make sure that your research interests will fit within the department.

• Departments are typically divided into research groups. These groups are usually listed on the department website, with their own individual webpages. It is worth spending some time browsing these pages. You should state which of these groups you see yourself most likely interacting with, and why. This gives evaluators a good sense of how you would fit into the department.

• If there are any specific faculty members whose research you find particularly compelling you should also list their names. A short (one sentence) summary of why you find their research interesting is also useful. This helps evaluators direct applications to specific faculty members.

Discussion of Future Plans

There are two types of future plans you can describe: those you intend to accomplish during graduate school, and plans for after graduate school.

• Describe any graduate student activities that you may be interested in participating in. Examples include the department’s graduate student association, the Association for Women in Mathematics, student chapters of the AMS or SIAM, or any other student groups. A list of these should be available on the department website.

• Any mentoring activities that you wish to participate in. Examples include doing reading projects with undergraduate or high school students.

• Any activities you may be interested in participating in during the summer months. Examples include attending summer schools, helping to run a research experience for high school or undergraduate students, working in a government lab, doing an internship in industry, etc. You don’t need to discuss specific opportunities, but listing those which interest you can be helpful for a committee.

• Describe what career possibilities you may wish to pursue after your degree. Examples include going further into academia, entering industry, working for government, etc.

None of these statements of ironclad commitments. They do, however, give a committee a sense of how you might fit into the department, and a sense of your personality.

Practical Tips

• Don’t write more than two pages.
• Once you’ve written it, do pay some attention to font, font size, and spacing. Making the document visually attractive can help.
• No one expects that you write a completely new statement for each school that you apply to. But there should be one or two paragraphs that you customize for each school that you apply to. This is a good way to show that you have spent at least some time researching the department and would seriously consider joining it. All the information you need to do this customization should be available on the department website.
• Write your personal statement before asking for letters of recommendation. You should send the statement to your letter writers. It helps them with their own letter, and as they are reading the statement they may send back suggestions for improvement. Generally it is enough to send them a template, i.e. it is not necessary to send them a statement for each school that you apply to.